WINTER 2014
Monarch Beach
SUNRISE ROTARY ON THE CALIFORNIA RIVIERA
President’s Message by Alan Wickstrom
MBSR IS TURNING 26 YEARS YOUNG! In February 2014, our Monarch Beach Sunrise Rotary Club turns 26 years young! What a great 26 years it has been. Thanks to you and those who preceded us, we have provided thousands of volunteer hours and we have raised over $1,000,000 in support to local and international charitable organizations. On February 23, 2014, Rotary turns 109 years young! Our 1.2 million-member organization started with the vision of one man, Paul P. Harris, an attorney who formed the Rotary Club of Chicago on February 23, 1905, as a place where professionals with diverse backgrounds could exchange ideas and form meaningful, lifelong friendships. On February 26, 2014, I turn 50 years young… THE BIG 5-0! For me, this is a big milestone in my life and Rotary has been a big part of it. My birthday wish is to see our Club grow and prosper in both treasures we can raise and service we provide to help those in need. The only way we can ensure the future health and growth of our Club is to invite prospective new members who have the same vision we have for our Rotary club. I’m renewing my challenge that I wrote about in my last president’s message, asking each of you to invite and bring one new prospective member guest to our weekly meeting FREE continued on page 3
24th Annual Monarch Beach Sunrise Rotary Club Vocational Day Monarch Beach Sunrise Rotary Club’s 24th Annual Vocational Day was our BIGGEST WEEKLY MEETING OF THE YEAR held on Wednesday, November 20, 2013 at the Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa. This year’s Vocational Day was a very special day. This day shows what Rotary’s motto, SERVICE ABOVE SELF, means in actions and deeds. Congratulations to MBSR Vocational Chair, Gary Maxwell continued on page 2
January Students of the Month On Jan 29, 2014, the Monarch Beach Sunrise Rotary Club recognized two Dana Hills High School seniors for their outstanding academic and volunteer service: Myra Farooqui and John Carroll. Our club also recognized their parents who attended, and the amazing Dana Hills High School Assistant Principal Dian Johnson who nurture their talents. Many thanks to Zohreh Behbehani for chairing the Monarch Beach Sunrise Rotary Club’s “Students of the Month” from Dana Hills High School for the club. A big thank you to the Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort & Spa for sponsoring the MBSR’s “Students of the Month” program.
MBSR MEETS ON WEDNESDAY MORNINGS AT 7AM AT THE LAGUNA CLIFFS MARRIOTT IN DANA POINT • MONARCHBEACHROTARY.COM
Vocational Day,
contd. from cover
and his vocational committee members Penny DiCaro, Stephanie McCormick, Nan Eide, Anita Houston, Zohreh Behbehani, Bonnie Myers, Cyndi Elders, John Coffman and Michael Maxwell for doing such an outstanding job!! Hundreds of combined hours were volunteered by these amazing and dedicated Rotarians to ensure the event went well and for this, we say thank you! Thank you to MBSR Club President, Alan Wickstrom, for his support and efforts on this event. Thank you to all the MBSR members who jumped in to assist (too many names to list). Thank you to Rotary District Governor, Rae Shier, for attending and to her governor’s aid, Helen Del Grosso, for taking all these great photos!! A big THANK YOU to ROP Guidance Specialists June Anthony (Aliso Niguel High School) and Suzie Speirs (South Coast ROP) for once again making MBSR Club’s 24th Annual Vocational Day a huge success for their high school seniors. June, Suzie and their staff work tons of hours to coordinate this event with our Club and we thank them for their dedication to making this event so special for their students. A special thanks to Dr. Joe Farley, Superintendent of the Capistrano Unified School District, Chris Carter, Principal of Aliso Niguel High School, and Dr. Jason Allemann, Principal of Dana Hills High School, for their continued commitment to ensure that Monarch Beach Sunrise
Rotary Club’s Annual Vocational Day happens each year. Without their continued support, our unique job shadowing vocational day event would not take place. Thanks to our special keynote speaker, Jim Madrid, who did an outstanding job inspiring the 120+ high school students, our members and guests on reaching their potential with his “Ten Principles of Entelechy” and the “7 Fundamentals of Mental Toughness”. A big THANK YOU to Jim Samuels, General Manager of the Marriott Laguna Cliffs Resort and Spa, Sandy Chiu, Director of Catering and Conference Services at the Marriott Laguna Cliffs Resort and Spa and their wonderful staff for hosting our warm breakfast event at their amazing four-diamond Southern California resort. They did an outstanding job!! THANK YOU!! Thank you to all our volunteer drivers and job shadow hosts!! Too many names to list here, but you know who you are and we THANK YOU for donating your time, car and energy to inspire our high school students. YOU ROCK!! Another big THANK YOU to the host of our lunch, John D. Gantes, owner of “On The Border” restaurant, General Manager, Dawne Doucette and all of the waiters and cooks who come in early to prepare a wonderful lunch at their restaurant for all of us. Also, a big THANK YOU our club’s contact and friend Tim McMahon, for arranging this and to the awesome Nan Eide, for organizing the lunch again this year!! YOU ROCK!!
Senior Thanksgiving Luncheon by Anita Houston and Mike Killebrew
Monarch Beach Sunrise Rotary hosted their largest ever annual Thanksgiving Luncheon for seniors at the Dana Point Senior/Community Center on November 23, and by all reports, it was once again a tremendous success! A record number of over 200 seniors (from as far away as Oxnard!) arrived to stand in line, as early as 10:45 AM. The Rotarian chefs, Stephanie McCormick, Mark Cruz, Allison Peterson, Ricardo Beas and Anita Houston were in the kitchen including the wonderful volunteer chef, Louis Lepe from our Lobster Fest (brought to us by fellow Rotarian, Mike Killebrew). Six wonderful Dana Hills High School Interact Club students, led by President Elect John Coffman, were also helping to continued on next page
February/March Birthdays & Anniversaries Birthdays Feb 1 Feb 9 Feb 17 Feb 24 Feb 26 Feb 28 Mar 5
Penny DiCaro Jessica Timberlake Rod Eide Zohreh Behbehani Alan Wickstrom Bill Palmer Tim McMahon
Mar 7 Mar 16 Mar 18 Mar 19 Mar 24 Mar 26
Joe Fitzgerald Carl Linhardt Mike Soliman Michael Truelove-Maxwell Jeannie Hankins Nan Edie
Anniversaries Feb 2 Feb 6 Feb 14 Mar 7 Mar 24 Mar 27 Mar 28
Tim and Carol McMahon Russ and Stephanie McCormick John and Nancy Baumann David and Kristina Harriman Sarah and Bruce Brenon Russell and Pamela Kerr John and Sylvia Coffman
Thanksgiving,
contd. from previous page
prepare all of the Thanksgiving fare. A big thank you goes out to all of our turkey chefs who arose early that morning (somewhere around 4:00am) to get 12 turkeys, including gravy, in the ovens so they would be ready to bring to the Senior Center by 9:00 A.M. Our potato peelers once again peeled over 70 pounds of potatoes in no time. Sixteen high school students from the Dana Hills High School Interact Club not only helped in the kitchen, but enjoyed serving the seniors and clearing the tables. What an amazing group of students!
Meet our own Carl Linhardt Carl Linhardt is currently President and CEO of Swipe Merchant Services Corp. Swipe was started in San Juan Capistrano in January 2006 and is a provider of processing solutions to retail, corporate and check cashing businesses nationwide. Swipe’s solutions include credit card, debit, ATM, check, RDC, gift card and EBT processing. He is an accomplished Senior Executive with over thirty years of sales, marketing and corporate management experience. Carl has held executive level positions with Ingram Micro, Merisel, DataClub, Cypress Research, Doublesight and Ericson Yachts. He also founded Bing Software, Inc., an awarding winning developer of telephony software for the Macintosh family of computers. Carl enjoys volunteering in the community; His passions are camping, music, boating, motorcycles and remotely piloted vehicles. He is currently a board member of the San Juan Capistrano Chamber of Commerce. He is an active member of our MBSR Club and currently serves as the Membership Chair for the group. Oh and did we say he is a great photographer too!
Presidents Message, continued from page 1
This year we once again delivered meals to 11 shut-ins who were unable to be at the luncheon. A big thank you goes to Barry Peterson (Allison Peterson’s husband), Gary Maxwell and Michael Maxwell, who helped deliver the meals. Anyone who works at this event knows that it is a great way to start the Holiday Season. The seniors love it and they are most appreciative. Whether you worked the event, or donated food, money or paper goods, a big thank you goes out to all fellow Rotarians (over 30 Rotarians!) who made this event, once again, a huge success! We are truly blessed to live in such a wonderful place and have so much for which to be thankful.
OF CHARGE. Prospective new members can attend up to two meetings at no cost to you or your guest. Our Club’s goal of eight new members for Rotary year 2013-2014 and with our awesome Club Membership Chair, Carl Linhardt, at the helm of our membership drive, we will IGNITE our club’s membership. Please use our new Rotary Black cards that Carl created and give the to prospective members. We are all ambassadors of Rotary and to our club and it is our duty to focus on building a strong, vibrant club so we can do more good locally and around the world by inviting prospective members to join and ENGAGE ROTARY! “Whatever Rotary may mean to us, to the world it will be known by the results it achieves.” —Paul P. Harris
Save the Dates! Sunday, March 2
Diamond Dig at Dana Point Festival of Whales
Monday, March 31
22nd Annual Charity Golf Tournament at The Monarch Beach Golf Links
Fri-Sun, May 2-4
District Conference in Temecula
Sunday, May 4
Dana Point Grand Prix of Cycling
Saturday, August 16
Lobster Fest at Doheny State Park
The 4-way test of things we think, say or do… Is it the truth? • Is it fair to all concerned? • Will it build goodwill and friendships? • Will it be beneficial to all concerned?
MARCH I S 22nd Annual Charity Golf Tournament March 31 Buy tickets online at MonarchBeachRotary.com We are proud to present our 22nd Annual Charity Golf Tournament, chaired by the awesome John Heldman, at Monarch Beach Golf Links on Monday, March 31. Come join us for a fun day of golf, games and delicious food on one of Orange County’s finest courses, Monarch Beach Golf Links and support a great cause at the same time... dinner on the green will be catered by our own Ricardo Beas, owner of Ricardo’s Place Mexican Restaurant. All proceeds will support local and international charities supported by The Monarch Beach Sunrise Rotary Club. Schedule of Events: 11:00 AM Check-In, Putting Contests, Open Bar and Box Lunch Served 12:45 PM Shotgun Start, Scramble Format 5:30 PM Awards and Dinner, Silent & LIVE Auction and Raffle
LITER AC Y MONTH
Monarch Beach Sunrise Rotary Officers & Directors 2013/14
Monarch Beach Sunrise Rotary Make-Up Locations
President..........................Alan Wickstrom Vice President.................... Gary Maxwell Secretary........................ Michael Maxwell Treasurer........................Nancy Baumann President Elect ................. John Coffman Imm. Past President.......... Ellen Turnbull
TUESDAY
DIRECTORS: Club Service ..................... John Coffman Community Service ........ Anita Houston Foundation Support ............. Linda Hess International Service.....Margarita Martin Membership Dev................ Carl Linhardt New Generations Service: John Coffman Vocational Service.............. Gary Maxwell CLUB SERVICE COMMITTEE LEADERS: Attendance .............................. John Rose Club Bulletin........Stephanie McCormick Fellowship ........................ Penny DiCaro Fine Master .......................... Russell Kerr Fundraisers, Golf ............. John Heldman Fundraisers, Lobster Fest .....Gary Maxwell Info & Orientation ............... Linda Hess Photographers.............. Michael Maxwell Alan Wickstrom Programs ....................... Allison Peterson Public Relations .............. Ellen Turnbull Scholarships ............... Zohreh Behbehani Sergeant of Arms ................. Paul Lehrich Social ................................... Mary Jeffries Song Leader ...................... John Hayden Website ........................ Alan Wickstrom LEADERSHIP: RI President.......................... Ron Burton District Governor.................... Rae Shirer
7:10 AM Mission Viejo Casta del Sol Golf Club House 7:15 AM San Clemente Sunrise Talega Country Club Heritage Grill 7:30 AM Newport Sunrise Five Crowns, PCH 12 NOON Laguna Niguel Savannah Chop House
WEDNESDAY 7:00 AM Coto De Caza/RSM Del Sol RSM Bell Tower 6:15 PM Newport-Balboa Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club 6:15 PM San Juan Capistrano Sarducci’s Capistrano Depot
THURSDAY 12 NOON Newport-Irvine University Club @ UCI 12 NOON San Clemente Iron in the Fire Restaurant
FRIDAY 12 noon, Laguna Beach Aliso Creek Inn & Golf Course MONARCHBEACHROTARY.COM FOR MORE DETAILS.
MBSR MEETS ON WEDNESDAY MORNINGS AT 7AM AT THE LAGUNA CLIFFS MARRIOTT IN DANA POINT • MONARCHBEACHROTARY.COM